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In ancient Egyptian funerary practice, the internal organs had to be removed from the body during mummification to allow complete drying. The heart was placed back in the body, but the other removed organs were wrapped in linen and stored in stone or ceramic jars. When the practice developed during the Old Kingdom, the jars were unornamented. By the end of the First Intermediate Period jars were often decorated with a human head representing the deceased. Early Egyptologists called these jars "Canopic" because of their similarity to other jars decorated with human heads: either the jars dedicated to Osiris in the town of Canopus near Alexandria, or perhaps offering jars for the cult of Canopus, a Greek water deity. During the New Kingdom the practice developed of carving representations of the Sons of Horus on the Canopic jars.
Four jars form a normal set of canopic jars. The jar of Duamutef, with the head of a jackal, contains the stomach. Qebehsenuef, with the head of a hawk, contains the intestines. Imsety, with the head of a man, contains the liver. The fourth jar represents Hapy, who normally has the head of a baboon, but in this case the artist has used a ram's head. Hapy protects the lungs of the deceased.
Stuffe & Nonsense Egyptian figurines and collectibles are modern manufactured decorative objects, made in the style of ancient Egyptian artifacts.
